Head-on crash Feb. 4 on Highway 180 kills 2

Two men — an off-duty veteran Fresno police officer and a wrong-way driver — were killed in a head-on crash on Highway 180 north of Sanger on Feb. 4.

The accident at about 5 p.m. just west of McCall Avenue claimed the life of 48-year-old Phia Vang, a 26-year veteran of the police department, The wrong-way driver was identified by the Fresno County coroner’s office as 33-year-old Cameron Pryor of Fresno.

Reports from witnesses and the California Highway Patrol indicated that Pryor was driving a pickup truck at excessive speed and reckless east on 180 toward Sanger. He apparently drifted into the westbound lanes of the four-lane expressway and crashed head-on into Vang’s truck. Both men died at the scene. Pryor reportedly had collided with multiple vehicles before the crash.

The CHP was investigating whether alcohol or drugs were a cause of the crash.

Police said that Vang worked with the department;s anti-gang unit and was a neighborhood officer in northwest Fresno. He was returning home from a work assignment in the rural county, according to police.

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